Sparkling fixed stars from the New World

Translated:

Daedalus Quartet from New York fascinates visitors at the concert in Weiden — fluent and concentrated

With Dvorak's Symphony "from the New World" the 48th season of the Foerderkreis concert season began in October. With a string quartet ensemble from the New World the season continued at the Max-Reger Hall on Friday. In front of a packed house, the young American Daedalus Quartet from New York was brilliant with classical and contemporary repertoire - the quartet that had been honored with the title "Rising Star" three years ago and which since has risen like a meteor.

Every day a concert

The quartet's technical ability and its expressivity proved that the four young Americans are aiming for a spot as fixed stars in the worldwide string quartet firmament. Without a trace of either fatigue or bored performance routine the Daedalus Quartet was heard on its longest tour to date, each day bringing the ensemble to a new German location. With great freshness and no tendency toward exaggeration, the effect was relaxed yet concentrated. The violinist Min-Young Kim and her brother Kyu-Young Kim, who took turns in the lead position, joined violist Jessica Thompson and cellist Raman Ramkrishnan in playing of perfect harmony and refinement. Even the foretaste of the upcoming Haydn Celebration Year provided by Opus 77 became an unforgettable experience: every tone, every bar turned into a celebration of the father of this form - without the slightest insecurity or imperfection in tuning - Haydn, who not only founded this genre but developed it to the highest art, making it eternally listenable.

Acoustic delights

Acoustic delights followed in the neoclassical "Three Pieces for String Quartet" by Igor Stravinsky, which gave the string players similar roles as in the Haydn, but with a 20th century slant: the serially monotone "Dance", the small structured "Excentrique," with its contrasting bluntness and sparkle, as well as "Cantique" with its sound of rubbing surfaces... David Horne created "Flight from the Labyrinth" expressly for the Daedalus Quartet : in the modern fashion strange effects are exacted from the string players and their instruments - as many as could be imagined by a contemporary composer. Exquisitely, the phenomenon "Flight" was persuasive in painting a sound picture.

Known and loved for his northern cool melancholy, the Finn Jean Sibelius created in his "Voces intimae" a dark circling around the same ideas and figures to achieve an impression of great portentousness. Without flagging, the ensemble demonstrated its stamina with two encores: a ragtime selection and an adagio from Joseph Haydn's last quartet Op. 20.